Japanese Garden At Shimane Art Museum Ranked No. 1 - - Again

YASUGI, Shimane Prefecture--The garden of an art museum here was rated as Japan's best for the 16th straight year by a popular U.S. gardening journal.

The Journal of Japanese Gardening, aka Sukiya Living Magazine, selected the Adachi Museum of Art's garden from among more than 900 around Japan in 2018, museum officials announced.

The rankings are determined by a committee of about 30 gardening experts from around the world, taking into account the excellence of Japanese gardens that merit appreciation at the present time.

The magazine features the top 50 gardens each year.

The Adachi museum's garden, which covers an area of about 165,000 square meters, features a variety of trees and flowers, including about 800 red pines, 100 black pines, "satsuki" and "tsutsuji" azaleas and maples.

About 30 staff members, including seven gardeners exclusively working for the garden, clean the site every morning 365 days a year, museum officials said.

"Trees change their shape over time, but everything would be spoiled if the balance with the surrounding scenery was lost," museum director Takanori Adachi said in a statement. "We thus not only prune, but also grow hundreds of trees in the backyard so that they can be transplanted anytime.

"As one of the museums representing Japan, we want to keep making efforts to further promote the charms."

Second place was claimed by the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto Prefecture.

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